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Add and manage Bank (Public) Holidays

Updated

Available for the following plans: Lite, Plus, Essentials, Engage, Elite, Unlimited 
Available for the following HR classic plans: Standard, Premium, Platinum
Available for the following User Access level: Admin   

Bank holiday calendars in Employment Hero ensure your employees can submit accurate leave requests based on the holidays that apply to their specific location. You can set up both standard public holiday calendars (automatically populated based on country) and custom calendars for organisation-specific holidays. These calendars are linked to your locations, enabling location-specific holiday management across your workforce.

Helpful Hint

Bank holidays are referred to as public holidays in Employment Hero.

Getting started

Add standard bank holidays calendar
  1. Log in to Employment Hero. 
  2. Click the Settings menu option on the left-hand side navigation.
  3. In the Time & Attendance section, click Bank Holidays.
  4. Click the Add New Calendar button.
  5. Click the Standard Public Holiday Calendar tick box.
  6. Complete the following fields.
    • Name.
    • Locations.
    • Standard public holiday calendar.
  7. Click the Submit button at the bottom of the page.
    Screenshot of the HR Platform showing the button to select to add a new public holiday calendar. 
Add custom bank holidays calendar
  1. Log in to Employment Hero. 
  2. Click the Settings menu option on the left-hand side navigation.
  3. In the Time & Attendance section, click bank holidays.
  4. Click the Add New Calendar button.
    Screenshot of the HR Platform showing the button to select to add a new public holiday calendar.
  5. Click the Custom Holiday Calendar tick box.
    Custom Holiday (1).jpg
  6. Complete the following fields:
    • Name.
    • Locations.
    • Year.

  7. Click the Add New button to enter your custom public holiday.
     

    Helpful Hint

    Click the Remove button to delete a custom calendar entry.

  8. Click the Submit button.
    Submit Border True.jpg 

Managing public holiday calendars

Edit custom bank holidays calendar
  1. Log in to Employment Hero. 
  2. Click the Settings menu option on the left-hand side navigation.
  3. In the Time & Attendance section, click bank holidays.
  4. Click the Actions button.
  5. Click the Edit button.
    Screenshot of the HR Platform highlighting the edit button that helps you edit existing custom public holiday calendars. 

  6. Make the required changes and click the Submit button
     

    Warning

    When editing a public holiday calendar, Employment Hero will prevent you from removing any holiday date that has a leave request attached to it, which you can see when the platform greys out a public holiday date.

    Screenshot of the HR Platform highlighting the Submit button that allows you to edit your Public Holiday Calendar.
     

Deleting a public holiday calendar

Warning

When deleting a public holiday calendar, we will prevent you from removing this entry if any holiday date within the calendar has a leave request attached to it. You can see this info as the platform will grey out a public holiday date that is in use.

  1. Log in to Employment Hero. 
  2. Click the Settings menu option on the left-hand side navigation.
  3. In the Time & Attendance section, click bank holidays.
  4. Click the Actions button.
  5. Click the Delete button.
  6. Click the Confirm button.
    Calendar Delete (1).jpg 

Control how public holidays are displayed in time off calendars

Update calendar display settings
  1. Click the Settings menu.
  2. In the Time & Attendance section, click Public Holidays.
  3. Toggle the "Show public holidays on time off calendars" option on or off to control whether public holidays are displayed in leave calendars.
    Time off settings (1).jpg
  4. Change the "Public Holiday Colour" to control the colour by which public holidays are displayed on leave calendars.

Note

These changes affect all public holiday calendars across the leave calendars in the Leave Management and My Leave, as well as the Leave Calendar widget in your dashboard.

Frequently asked questions

Is it possible to access standard public holiday calendars for multiple countries? 

At this stage, only the Standard Public Holiday Calendars for your organisation's original country use on your platform are available. For example, if you set up your original country as Australia, you will only be able to access the Australian standard public holiday calendar. This remains the case even if you later add a New Zealand country location to your platform.

Are custom public holiday calendars updated every year?

For any custom public holiday calendars, these will need to be updated every year, as they are not auto-updated by the platform.

What if multiple public holiday calendars are linked to a particular location?

Where multiple public holiday calendars have been set up and linked to a particular location, all the bank holidays combined within both calendars will apply to the employees who are classified under that location.

How will newly created bank holidays affect employee leave requests?

Newly created bank holidays will only be applied to any future leave requests that have not yet been submitted by employees.

Explore related content

  • Managing Locations Learn how to set up and manage locations that will be linked to your public holiday calendars.
  • Update my company details This feature allows you to update your organisational details stored within Employment Hero, such as your head office phone number.
  • Update my company address This feature allows you to update your organisational details stored within Employment Hero, such as your head office address.
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